The Perfect Christmas
by DinoDina
Summary: It's Christmas, and Jack and Ianto are helping with the annual invasion in London. Janto oneshot. Happy New Year!


**Based on a prompt from gmariam, where Jack and Ianto tackle the Christmas invasion in the airport. Happy New Year!**

Jack pulled the SUV to a stop outside Heathrow Airport. There was even less space than usual: cabs had arrived to pick up panicked travelers, UNIT was there with its own fleet, and families were gathered outside saying goodbye, not knowing that an alien threat had gotten loose inside.

Ianto braced himself against the dashboard and took a second to catch his breath.

That done, he exchanged a look with Jack and climbed out. Across the top of the car, he caught an extra gun and the keys, then joined Jack at the entrance.

"Should we wait for them?" he indicated the soldiers.

Jack shot them an annoyed glance. "We're their backup, so yes."

"Right."

"Hey, while we have the time, I just want to say I'm sorry." Jack gestured at the door. "Being out here on Christmas. Not exactly what we were planning."

"As if that's new."

"Still."

"Thanks."

Ianto stood straighter as the soldiers approached. The older and higher-ranking ones shot him and Jack dark looks—completely undeserved, given that Torchwood saved the world, or at least their part of the world, much more often than UNIT did.

Jack deferred command to the UNIT captain with a mocking nod; Ianto wasn't sure whether he should laugh, roll his eyes, or do damage control. A crash sounded from inside and both Jack and the soldiers stood straighter, snippiness forgotten. The annual Christmas invasion was nothing to joke about.

"Divide into groups," the UNIT commander called to them. "Patrol and neutralize the threat if you come across it. Captain, you take terminal one. Jones, terminal two. Myself, Captain James, and Captain Stevens with take three, four, and five. Stevens, terminal five is in three buildings, take extra men."

He exchanged a look with Jack that was either thankfulness or a threat to behave. He was quite a bit more focused on the UNIT soldiers temporarily under his command; when this was all over, Jack was going to have a field day with that.

Ianto had never been in charge of so many soldiers before. He had to agree with Jack, though, that the red caps were very becoming. He hoped that the invasion wasn't as dangerous as in other years. A few of the soldiers were older than him but Ianto knew that they'd all been dealing with aliens for much less time.

"Let's go," he said to them. He looked at Jack. "Good luck."

"You, too," Jack replied with both his usual worry and excitement.

Briefly, Ianto was tempted to give him a kiss goodbye. It was Christmas, after all, and UNIT knew they were together. It had nothing to do with the danger, even, but Jack was always kissable—especially when he was in charge of a small garrison.

So Ianto took a step forward and did just that.

Then he stepped back, joined his own soldiers, and ran to the second terminal.

The alien wasn't there.

Ianto tapped his comm. "Commander."

"Jones?"

"It's not here. Anything on your end?"

"Not here."

The other officers joined the conversation—no one had seen the alien.

But Ianto knew that it was there. UNIT had gotten alerts—Torchwood had gotten one, too, which was saying something since they were in Cardiff and quite content to let London fall most years—as had Jack's vortex manipulator. Indicating to his soldiers to stay alert, Ianto turned and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place, but one could never be too careful. He looked out the window: nothing.

And yet. Ianto furrowed his eyebrows and approached one of the tall windows leading onto the tarmac. Something strange had caught his eye, a shadow or reflection on one of the windows, just odd enough to warrant checking out.

He looked outside; the outside looked back.

He tapped his comm. "It's here."

Ianto gestured to the soldiers and heard the stomping of their boots. He'd need to have a talk with them about stealth, because it was a miracle that the alien didn't budge. It stayed attached to the outside wall and window of the terminal, looking flat and gelatinous, its five eyestalks all directed at Ianto.

It didn't look the least bit friendly.

"Don't shoot," he said to the soldiers despite his misgivings. "I'll stay here, you evacuate the gates closest to us. Then the whole terminal. Don't incite panic."

He knew how UNIT worked. They were about as subtle as Jack's labelling fetish, but not nearly as endearing. They led to panic, never did damage control, and were as power-hungry as Torchwood One had ever been. Ianto was fully on Jack's side when it came to dealing with UNIT, which never entailed cooperating with them.

And yet here he was.

Ianto kept an eye on the unknown alien and observed. It was a dark color that wasn't quite black, maybe red or green, and ominously gelatinous. From what looked to be its center, about a meter behind the eyestalks, tendrils of goo swept out along the side of the building. It had so far skirted around the windows, and if Ianto were to guess why no one had noticed it, he'd go with a camouflage ability. If this were Cardiff, Torchwood would have been called long ago and the alien would have been dealt with.

It wasn't Cardiff, however. Ianto chased away the nagging feeling in his chest at being back hunting aliens in London. He had a job to do.

"It's latched onto the side of the building," Ianto said, hoping that Jack would be able to identify it. "Dark, gelatinous, five eyestalks. Looks to be some kind of slow invasion: my guess is that it surrounds a building, then gets at everyone inside and keeps going from there. Parasitic, maybe?"

"This is why I like you, Ianto Jones!" Ianto tried not to look too pleased at the praise, at least when Jack would arrive; he was already running. "Exactly. I can see why it chose an airport, though maybe the international terminal would have been better. It's going to try to get at every traveler in here. What you're seeing is the alien itself—it must not have gotten anyone yet."

"Terminal's empty, sir."

"Good." Ianto nodded at the soldier then tapped his comm. "What do we do, Jack?"

"Wait for the official command," the UNIT commander suddenly barked so loudly into his comm that Ianto almost jumped. "I'm coming to your location, Jones, don't forget that this is UNIT business, not Torchwood."

"Freeze it," Jack said after a moment, sounding out of breath, "it can't move in the cold, and when it can't move, it can't invade."

"Freeze gun?"

"_Jones_!"

"Commander, with all due respect, do you know what the alien is or have any way of stopping it?" Ianto huffed. "I thought not. Jack?"

"Should be one in the car."

"Of course." Ianto sighed and gestured to the soldier nearest him. "Boot's going to open with a retinal scan. Bring the freeze gun here—don't worry, it's labelled—but don't turn it on. Quickly."

The soldier saluted—and telling that to Jack would make his day—and ran off to the Torchwood SUV. Ianto felt a burst of possessiveness for the car, but it wouldn't do to leave his post when he was the one in charge.

The soldier ran back into the terminal only moments after Jack, the Commander, and the UNIT captains joined him. Ianto naturally deferred leadership to Jack, ignoring the glares sent his way. For all that Torchwood did wrong, it could also be efficient: gun in hand, Jack marched outside, and Ianto soon saw the alien turning to ice.

"I think it's neutralized," he said to the Commander, who looked rudely incredulous.

Jack echoed the sentiment when he walked back in. He shook his head when the Commander reached out a hand for the freeze gun. "Don't even think about it."

Ianto holstered his gun. The good part of UNIT running point meant that they were free to leave. Jack seemed to have the same idea because he saluted the commander and turned on his heel. Ianto followed; now that the alien was gone—or as gone as it could get before cleanup—he no longer walked a step behind Jack's right shoulder but at his side.

They linked hands as they passed a tacky display that said "Happy Christmas!"

"I could get you some chocolates?" Jack suggested.

"Don't bother. Not that I wouldn't appreciate it. But I don't want something from the airport. We've been here enough."

"I'm sorry we got so caught up here." They'd originally only gone to London for a quick conference—stupid to schedule it for Christmas Eve—and had ended up at the airport instead. "I don't think the traffic will be too bad if we go back now."

It was tempting to jump into the SUV and head straight to Cardiff. They'd make it back in time to heat up some dinner and cuddle on the couch. Informal dinner, of course, as no one had been around to make it. But it would be perfect: they would be together.

Ianto nodded. "Let's go. We can always try the big and fancy Christmas next year."


End file.
